Yei 05-March-2012

It was time for another mission, this time things would be a little different. Instead of flying I would be driving. In the Republic of South Sudan the UN has some pretty stringent rules about safety. Driving anywhere outside of towns has a degree of danger. There are still a lot of landmines around both anti-vehicle and anti-personnel; there are bandits and armed rebel groups; and there are poor drivers, and lastly but the most likely to cause a problem are the poor road conditions. So we have to move about in a convoy and radio in at check points along the way.

My mission was to drive to Yei to check on the co-location there; along for the ride and to do their own work was a British Police officer Peter, two Australian Police officers Daina and Tina, and a Canadian Civilian Dan.

I was the patrol leader which meant I got to drive in the front and radio in, although my co-pilot Daina ended up working the radio when she wasn’t hanging on due to the rough ride. It took 4 hours to drive Yei.

 Our UN convoy, the road is all dirt to Yei which is about 147 KM from Juba.

On our way to Yei we passed a dump or maybe the road goes through the dump, which would be a better way to describe it. The whole place was burning with people sifting through the garbage for anything useful. Along the outskirts there are dwellings. It was sad to see children rummaging through the garbage. Unlike dumps in Canada not much of anything is thrown out in South Sudan.

The Bike in the background isn’t garbage some guy rode it there and was sifting through the garbage nearby; he put it on the hill to keep it safe.

The County Support Base at Yei, UNPOL are placed at bases throughout the Republic of South Sudan so we can be close to the Sudanese police throughout the country. At Yei are two Canadian contingent members, Steve and Tess. Unfortunately the Yei base is closing and the UNPOL will be moving to another base close by which is a UNHCR (United Nations High Commission of Refugees), part of our mission was to facilitate this.



Yei had a famous Canadian police officer here before, a fellow Calgary Police Officer Jim Shaw. When Jim was in Yei he built ‘Blue’ the social building for the camp. Thats Steve by the door.



 The inside of 'Blue' note the Canadian flags there is a lot of them. The UNPOL and SSPS all mention Jim and the good job he did in Yei.

Tess, a member of our Canadian contingent stationed in Yei.

 Steve the other Canuck in Yei

 A meeting in the Yei CSB

 Our mission team visiting the UNHCR base

Steve's accommodation, the cat is friendly and from what I was told likes Canadians as he/she? Was always following Jim around when he was stationed here.

The dirt is so hard it is like cement yet this flower popped out, hopefully it symbolizes South Sudan as a new country

Steve and Tess hosted a really superb dinner for us. Yei is a really nice base, when we were there it had mostly closed down so only Steve and Tess were still living there.

As you can see a lot of buildings from Yei base have been moved off to other CSB sites.

A strange rock formation near Yei, from a distance we thought it was a building. Unfortunately we could not leave the road, to explore it, as the area is a danger for land mines.

The Road home to Juba.

Bentiu

February 22, 2012, I had to fly to Bentiu, which is in theUnity State of South Sudan. My Mission was to meet with UNPOL officers and get some feedback about Police Advising. I traveled with my Friend and Supervisor Georg (German Police).

We flew by plane  a small Russian plane.

Our ride it is a Russian plane an IIyushin of some sort. The aircrew told me but in true fashion I have forgotten the model. For a small plane it sure felt sturdy. I had the feeling that you could not break this plane. The Pilot had a good sense of humor.

Bentiu is located in Unity State, south of Sudan, it is along the Nile river and is the State Capital. The State UN base is located there. UNMISS stands for United Nations Mission In South Sudan.

Georg and I were there to meet with all the UNPOL, but I was also looking forward to seeing Jen and Rob two UNPOL from my Canadian Contingent. Both Rob and Jen wanted hot plates so they could cook (bought them from Konyo-Konyo of course), so I lugged them and some cheese up to their Base.

Rob teaching the picture is blurred as he never is motionless long enough to take a good picture.  Here Rob is teaching the SSPS, the other gentleman is a language assistant for Arabic. Being in the north part of South Sudan Arabic is spoken a lot.

 

Georg and I addressing Rob’s class, which was at the SSPS training facility in Bentiu. We were guests and were asked to talk for a bit. We also wanted to ask the SSPS their thoughts on Co-location and advising. We got a lot of good ideas from them. There is no air conditioning (no electricity) in this building and as you can see no computers, projectors or other high tech learning aids; here you must be a good teacher to get the message out.

Jen standing with some very tall female SSPS officers. Jen specializes in teaching Gender Child Vulnerable Persons and Protection lessons.

Me with some of the SSPS female officers after the training

There are no water pipes in Bentiu so water must be transported to businesses and homes. The main way of doing this is by donkey cart. Boys drive the carts to a pump by the Nile and fill up two 45 gallon oil drums (they are wielded together), and then sell the water around town. I figured the total weight is around a thousand pounds; those skinny little donkeys are pretty strong.

The donkey cart

Me in front of Unity State Police Headquarters. We were here to observe the registration process. Currently the SSPS is registering all Police personnel, when the country got independence from Sudan it had to quickly form a Police Service so there is a lack of personnel records for officers. Each officer will go through a registration process over the next month.

A registration line-up. The officers come here to the HQ to get registered.You can see how people take advantage of shade in Sudan. A lot of these officers walked miles to get here and register.

The River Nile cuts right through the centre of South Sudan from north to south and is used as a commercial transport for barges and boats. Here at Bentiu some UN soldiers are picking up supplies from a barge.

SSPS officers standing at attention while being addressed by a senior officer. Shade is used again.

Donkey carts loading up property from a barge by the Nile.

Somehow I knew this living container belonged to either Rob or Jen. There are two military guys in Bentiu as well but were on Patrol when we were there unfortunately. One of them I had met while staying at Canada House.

Georg and I with some ostriches that were walking down the road.

Jen, Rob, Georg, Biem (SSPS officer and friend of Rob and Jens) and I eating dinner at the Quality Inn restaurant. We ate on the roof as the building was Arabic by its architecture, it was nice and cool there at night (the sun sets at 7 PM). It was dark enough to see the stars and a very pleasant night. The sad thing about Bentiu is that it is so close to the Sudan border that conflict occurs near there constantly. There is no trade along the border so any products are shipped north on the Nile from either Uganda or Kenya via Juba. The prices on a lot of things are almost double that of Juba. The restaurant only had 3 chickens which we shared for our dinner. A lot of people in this area have limited access to food.

Konyo Konyo Market

Konyo Konyo market is an open shopping area located in Juba's southeast part near the Nile. It is a large market that sells a lot of household and some commercial stuff. Most stalls are fairly small and jam packed with merchandise. Lanes are usually specific to products so there is a spice area, clothing and electronics areas and so on. Prices are not marked and you can negotiate a little, but the venders all seem to have the same prices for their products.

Laneways can be tight, when the market is busy merchandise is arriving as people shop, so trucks large drop off stuff along the road and then kids use wheelbarrows to move the product to the stalls.

I bought a bucket which I ended up using to wash my clothes in until my Aussie and Swedish roommates (military) fixed a bunch of washing machines at our camp. Now it’s a clothes hamper

A corner of the market

A nice bike store and yes guys will drive their motorbikes through the market.

This looks very similar to a 1940’s Raleigh police bike that the Calgary Police Service used. I am guessing this is an imitation, and hasnt been here since 1940. They wanted 200 USD for it but everything is negotiable here.  My friends and Colleagues at LEBA (Law Enforcement Bicycle Association http://www.leba.org/) would love the bike shops here; you can get stuff that can really trick out a bike.

My buddy and roommate Kevin at the spice area, it smelt good in this part of the market, unlike the fish section.

Typical lane

Bike store with lots of cool stuff.

Some tight spots in the market.

The market is pretty safe during the day and the merchants are friendly. Most common language is Arabic but you can make do with English. South Sudan still has to import a lot of merchandise from Kenya and Uganda which means you will pay more the further you go north. I was in Bentiu which is close to Sudan and prices there for some things were double that of Juba.  

Trips to Bor

Part of my Job is to travel and assist other UNPOL (United Nations Police) Advisors co-locate with the SSPS (South Sudan Police Service), which is really interesting as I will see a lot of South Sudan and meet a lot of other police officers. My first visit was to Bor which is the Capital of Jonglei State. Jonglei State has made a lot of international news with the recent tribal cattle raids. Hundreds of people in the State have been killed by raids and retaliation raids. The tribes have raided historically each other for hundreds of years but with the addition of automatic weapons and experience in modern warfare from the civil war with Sudan the numbers of people killed and hurt have increased dramatically. I ended up going to Bor twice in 2 weeks. There is a good bunch of UNPOL there who really are trying to help the SSPS pacify the area.

My ride out to Bor, I was hoping to ride in one of the Russian helicopters.

A meeting with the SSPS and the State Police Commissioner, and some high ranking State police colonels. The SSPS in Bor are in a tough position as the State is the largest in South Sudan and has three main tribes that are in conflict which each other. UNPOL officers and the SSPS are often working together on police issues. I respect the tenacity of the SSPS as South Sudan is a new nation and they work with limited resources to police their country. Canadian police officers have it pretty good compared to what these officers work with.  

A meeting with some elders at a Payom (village) just outside Bor. The Elders were very polite and offered us the shade and chairs. The Payom is along the Nile, it was very hot out about 40 degrees, the Nile looked so inviting until i remembered the crocodiles.

Some members of the Livestock Protection Unit; these officers (SSPS) patrol for cattle raiders. There is a lot of raiding on a small scale almost daily. In December 2011 thousands of youths from one tribe raided, killing a lot of people in the process. I have left out tribe names as there is a long history of tribal warfare, no one side is to blame. There is a strong need to bring peace to this area and the SSPS have a big job to do.

More LPU with one of their patrol vehicles. The Officer in the brown camo uniform is Tobias a co-worker and friend.

Bor town, that lady is carrying a bed roll on her head. The South Sudanese women work hard all day.  A lot of the women can carry heavy loads on their heads with exceptional balance and grace. There are wells throughout the Joglei State some women will carry water for miles daily.

On our patrol we came across a troop of baboons; they saw and took off with only the large males watching us.

My ride back to Juba

Juba

From Entebbe we go to Juba the capital of South Sudan and where the main UN base is. The UN is busy here and our first job was to find accommodations. You are basically left to your own means to find a place except that you can only stay somewhere the UN approves of. If you are lucky and get accommodations on the base, that’s no problem, if you have to find something in Juba that’s a problem. Well there are about 240 people waiting for accommodations on the base. Our contingent split up the lucky ones got some beds in Canada House, the others got a tent in the UN compound by a latrine pit.

Arrival at Juba

Canada House

Me and Kevin two lucky guys who got to stay in Canada House.

I would like to thank the Canadian Military for their hospitality in putting most of the contingent up for short term at Canada House. Canada House is a support base for our military in South Sudan. The guys and girls there were awesome and looked after us.

Thank You.

We did 5 days of more induction training in Juba covering some topics such as land mines, law, and of course we had to get our drivers licenses.

The UN requires everyone to be tested.

Here every vehicle is a standard drive but unlike in Entebbe we drive on the right side, so it was an easy thing to do.

After induction training we were assigned I fully expected to be sent to some far away site location (and was hoping to go), but instead I got assigned a position in Juba.

I was told I was the new Co-location manager?????????

Basically co-location is what we UN police officers are expected to do with the South Sudanese Police Service SSPS. We co-locate with them while they work and offer advice and mentorship. My job would be to facilitate that and bring in new ideas and projects. Sounds boring but after a few days I realized that it would be traveling around the country and putting a lot of work into fixing police issues.

Driving around Juba, the streets are almost all dirt with large ruts and holes. There are no signs or traffic lights. It is chaos but somehow people avoid hitting each other for the most part. Here a UN vehicle got hit by a guy who backed up to avoid a crane backing up on him.

Some kids in Juba, they made pinwheels out of pop cans.

I call this a squat box. I have yet to use one.

My temporary accommodations at the UN base, I was sharing a transient room with some other Canadian police, British military, Swedish military and Australian Military. Good bunch of guys. The tents are to protect against mosquitoes.